Isn't Hugh Grant that scum who was arrested for..?
It appears that Hugh Grant has escaped the image that he is a sleazeball, foppish Englishman prowling the streets for hookers. Well at least the image of him being a sleazeball prowling the streets for hookers (he is definitely still a foppish Englishman). To complete his liberation he made Notting Hill, a wonderful romantic comedy with Julia Roberts (who has a growing list of romantic comedies on her resumé). This movie had so many hilarious moments that you sometimes missed one line because you were still laughing from the last. Notting Hill (along with Never Been Kissed) jumped out in the lead as the favorites for next years "Mikey" for Best Date Movie next year.
Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) goes slumming with William Thacker (Hugh Grant)
William Thacker (Hugh Grant, Nine Months and Sense and Sensibility) is a normal bloke who lives in a quaint little neighborhood in London know as Notting Hill with an his flatmate Spike (Rhys Ifans, and I really wish I had a picture because he really is a goofy looking bastard), an eccentric (more like weird) Welchman. He also owns a small book shop that is starting to go under. He was content with his little life and never thought it would really change until one day when Anna Scott (Julia Roberts, Stepmom and Pretty Woman), the most famous actress in the world, walks into his shop and buys a book on Turkey. After running into her again (literally) on the street Anna and William have a brief romantic moment and then go back to their business. A few days later Anna gives William a call requesting to see him. What follows is a quite comical evening at Williams little sister, Honey's (Emma Chambers) birtday party with William's "low class" friends. Despite the charming evening Anna is forced to leave London to promote her new movie Helix.After months of being apart, William and Anna have a rendevous and again are split apart after William dicovers that Anna has a boyfried who is a famous actor (Alec Baldwin not playing himself, The Hunt for Red October). After several more months (or possibly even years) William's friends force him to date other women, but he can't get his mind off Anna, especially since they run into each other several times, even though she repeatedly breaks his heart. Eventually it comes to the moment where we, as the audience, are shown whether or not William and Anna end up together (which I am not going to tell you).
William feels like the luckiest man alive
What really makes this movie good are the characters (played wonderfully by just about everyone) and their hilarious dialogue. This definitely isn't a comedy that makes you laugh with outragous and odd situations (a la There's Something About Mary) or anything fancy... it is just funny. First of all the main characters (William and Anna) are normal human beings (as normal as a superstar actress can be in Julia Roberts' case) with normal emotions and motivations. Hugh Grant plays a witty and believable man looking for love in this crazy world and Julia Roberts is very good as an ageing starlet concerned with her future as an actress after her looks go and "people realize I [meaning Anna] can't act." Second the supporting characters are great for a comedy. William's flatmate Spike is an eccentric character who makes gross just plain hilarious. I hope to see more of Rhys Ifans (the actor who played Spike) because he filled in any gaps that might have been missing in the plot and provided much more then his share of laughs And the rest of Williams friends have a great chemistry together that keeps you laughing because they are real. Finally, the writing is superb. As I said the characters are all believable (except for maybe Spike, but Spike helps make the movie) and the reason for this is they are writen realistically and with perfect comedic instinct. The dialogue just kept me laughing from begining to end. All in all, Notting Hill is a wonderful date movie that just about everyone will laugh at.
